UEFA European Championship 2016 – Group D and their coffee
We are well into our rundown of the all the nations turning up in France for a spot of soccer, with more still to come, but as for who is the kings of coffee? It’s a difficult decision to make!
Group D sees the defending champions Spain take on one of the most influential coffee drinking nations, Turkey, looking to make a mark on the footballing world.
This is a tough group, and not just because of the coffee!
Group D
Spain – ‘Café’
The two time defending champions will be looking to improve upon their performances at the last major tournament, where they were eliminated after just two games.
On the coffee front, Spain has a rich coffee heritage. Drinking coffee after every meal, the preferred drink of choice is Café con Leche (coffee with milk), which is essentially half milk and half coffee according to their rulebook.
But their signature coffee has to be the Carajillo, which combines ground coffee with brandy, whisky, anisette or rum. The name is up for debate, as is the alcohol added, but I like the origin story of muleteers in Barcelona train station asking their baristas to mix their coffee and liquor because they “had to go” or in Catalan, “que ara guillo”.
Brilliant.
Czech Republic – ‘káva’
Another nation of tea drinkers, the Czech Republic prefers their coffee in a Turkish style, with ground coffee being boiled with water and then served.
For the most part the coffee is secondary to most Czech’s, who when they say “let’s go for a coffee”, what they really mean is “let’s have a big mug of something warm, chat over it for an hour and a half and ideally smoke ten cigarettes in the meantime.”
The coffee culture is very much an emerging area in the Czech Republic, a sort of coffee renaissance is occurring, and hopefully they can match this on the pitch this summer!
Turkey – ‘Kahve’
Fathers of the unfiltered coffee preparation, Turkish coffee is recognised as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of the nation by UNESCO, which is some accolade.
The Turkish or Ottoman method is popular in wide-swathes of the Arabic speaking world, and vast portions of Europe.
Even the word ‘coffee’ was derived from the Arabic word ‘qahwah’. Such is the importance of coffee in Turkish culture, the word breakfast — kahvalti — literally means “before coffee”.
Turkish coffee is more a method of preparation, than a type of drink, with the beans being ground as finely as possible. The cezve — the iconic pan handled pot — holds the water and coffee beans and is boiled. Any foam is then removed and the coffee is boiled again with the cezve being removed from the heat each time the liquid boils.
Then pour and serve with either milk or cold water and sugar if desired.
Croatia – ‘kava’
Only existing as an independent nation for just over two decades, Croatia has had it’s fair share of impressive footballing performances in the short time the national team has existed, including preventing England from even attending Euro 2008!
In the coffee world though Croatia has, like many other European nations has been influenced by the Ottoman empire, and produces coffee in a similar manner to that of Group D rivals Turkey.
Cafe culture is a big part of the Croatian psyche, with coffee being a way to meet and chat with friends whilst watching the world go by, Zagreb’s unwritten coffee culture insists on allowing at least 2 hours for coffee!
Just enough time to watch a match, funny that…